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Era Stupendo for Switzerland

Posted 31 January, 2008 - 01:42 by Steve Paxton

Forget about vampires, Swiss hopes are alive!

Switzerland were one of the first countries to reveal their plans for the 2008 contest when they announced in November that Paolo Meneguzzi would be their representative. They have now revealed the song. It’s called ‘Era Stupendo’ (It was Wonderful). As seems to happen every year now, there are accusations of plagiarism, with some alleging similarities with a song by Amy Diamond. There seems little possibility of the song being disqualified as a result of this. The views of those that have heard the Amy Diamond song seem to be firmly on the side of Paolo and can’t see the similarity.

Paolo was born in Mendrisio in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland and close to the Italian border, in 1976.
His first success came in Chile at the age of 19 when he won the Miña del Mar Festival with the song ‘Aria’. He is now an established artist in Italy, participating in the famous Sanremo festival 4 times. His song from the festival last year, ‘Musica’ was a massive hit and stayed at the top of the Italian charts for 6 weeks. He is in the festival this year too, with the song ‘Grande’. This year’s festival finishes 1st March, only a couple of months before he arrives in Belgrade. No time for him to get bored, then.

Whatever the viewing public make of the song, he is sure to give it a solid performance in the 2nd semi-final on 22nd May.

Contributors:

In my view:

There is not a chance this song will be disqualified because of plagiarism. It sounds nothing like the song it is supposed to have copied. Some people need their ears cleaning.

Links:

Paolo Meneguzzi's Official Website

Source(s):

www.paolomeneguzzi.it

The opinion expressed in "In my view" are those of the author and are not necessarily the one of EuroVisionary.com.

Comments

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The Amy Diamond song

Submitted by Charlie on 17 March, 2008 - 14:30.

is called "It can only get better" by the way. It can be easily found on YouTube for those who want to listen to both songs for themselves. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ogu0sd1fHNw

plagiarism

Submitted by Charlie on 17 March, 2008 - 14:12.

I would say it sounds A LOT like Amy Diamond's song. The exact same melody in the verse, almost the same in the chorus and the same harmonies all through. You can easily sing one over the other and hear that. Has there ever been a case of alleged plagiarism that has stuck in Eurovision? Just curious as to whether songs *ever* get disqualified...